Harvey Shapiro
| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, United States | death_date = January | death_place = Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York | death_cause = Complications from surgery | nationality = American | education = Bachelor's degree in English Master's degree in American literature | alma_mater = Yale University Columbia University | other_names = | occupation = Poet Former editor of The New York Times | years_active = 1953-2006 (poet) 1957-2005 (editor) | spouse = Edna Lewis Kaufman (divorced) }} Harvey Irwin Shapiro (January 27, 1924 - January 7, 2013) was an American poet and an editor of the New York Times. Life Overview As a poet, Shapiro authored a dozen books from 1953 to 2006, writing in epigrammatic style about things in his everyday life. As an editor, he was always affiliated with The New York Times in some capacity, mainly in the magazine and book reviews, from 1957 to 2005. Youth and education Shapiro was born in Chicago on January 27, 1924 into a Jewish family from Kiev. He spoke Yiddish. When he was a boy, his family moved to Manhattan, New York City, and later to Long Island. He studied at Yale University but joined the Army Air Forces when World War II broke out. He flew 35 combat missions over Europe as a B-17 tail gunner and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He returned to Yale to earn a bachelor's degree in English in 1947, followed by a master's degree in American literature from Columbia University in 1948. Newspaper career Shapiro spent the 1st half of the 1950s teaching English at Cornell University and Bard College. He then became an assistant editor at Commentary magazine, and was the poetry editor at the'' Village Voice'' and a fiction editor at the New Yorker He joined the New York Times in 1957. He worked in various editorial positions there: The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review from 1975 to 1983, and deputy editor of the magazine. Perhaps the most notable non-achievement at The New York Times was in 1962 when he had read that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been put in jail. He phoned Dr. King's foundation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and suggested that, the next time King was put in jail, he should compose a letter to publish. This letter became the Letter from Birmingham Jail, after Dr. King was arrested for the Birmingham campaign in April 1963. Shapiro's superiors would not allow him to print Dr. King's letter in The New York Times, but the letter was printed elsewhere 50 times in 325 editions, including Dr. King's own book Why We Can't Wait. Poetry Shapiro continued to write poetry while working as an editor, publishing a dozen books, such as The Eye (1953), The Light Holds (1984) and National Cold Storage Company (1988). He also edited an anthology entitled Poets of World War II. Private life Shapiro was married to and later divorced from Edna Lewis Kaufman. He resided in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York with his companion Galen Williams until his death on January 7, 2013 after complications of recent surgery. He was 88 years old. Shapiro is survived by his two sons, Saul and Dan. Publications Poetry *''The Eye''. Denver, CO: Swallow Press, 1953; New York: AMS Press, 1975. *''Mountain, Fire, Thornbush''. Denver, CO: Swallow Press, 1961. *''Battle Report: Selected poems''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1966. *''This World: Poems''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1971. *''Lauds: Poems''. New York: Sun, 1975. *''Lauds and Nightsounds''. New York: Sun, 1978. *''National Cold Storage Company: New and selected poems''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988. *''The Light Holds: Poems''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994. *''A Day's Portion: Poems''. Brooklyn, NY: Hanging Loose Press, 1994. *''Selected Poems''. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997. *''How Charlie Shavers Died, and other poems''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001. *''The Sights Along the Harbor: New and collected poems''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2006. *''A Momentary Glory: Last poems'' (edited by Norman Finkelstein). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2014. Novel *''Murder in SoHo'' (with Paulette Turnay). New York: Dutton, 1987. Non-fiction *''Educational Theory and Jewish Studies in Conversation: From Volozhin to Buczacz''. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013. Edited *''Poets of World War II''. New York: Library of America, 2003. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Harvey Shapiro, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 14, 2015. See also *List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *Harvey Shapiro at PoemHunter ("New York City Notes") *Harvey Shapiro 2 poems at the Academy of American Poets *Harvey Shapiro 1924-2013 at the Poetry Foundation ;Audio / video *Harvey Shapiro at YouTube ;Books *Harvey Shapiro at Amazon.com ;About *Poet Harvey Shapiro, bard of New York at The Villager. *Harvey Shapiro at Poetryvlog.com. *"Harvey Shapiro, Poet and Editor, Dies at 88" obituary, New York Times Category:1924 births Category:2013 deaths Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:American poets Category:The New York Times editors Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Yale University alumni Category:Bard College faculty Category:Cornell University faculty Category:United States Army Air Forces enlisted pilots Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Category:Writers from Chicago, Illinois Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish poets Category:Poets